To The Last Page

Although it does deal to some extent with the profound changes in Indian society and their reflection in the national and individual psyche, Aatish Taseer writes in a way that is very different from the familiar writing from India of epic coming-of-age stories. The modernism in Taseer’s writing is appropriate then, because The Temple-Goers depicts a post-colonial society that has other new challenges to face in the modern age, and there’s an unsettling clash between this modernism and old attitudes towards tradition, class, religion and caste that is reflected in the figure of the narrator himself - called Aatish Taseer - a writer who has returned to Delhi having lived abroad for a number of years to revise a novel he is working on. The values, in relationships, career prospects and even body image - where even the traditional Gods are now depicted with slimmed-down forms and six-packs that can only be achieved from extensive gym training - are now more recognisably those of the weste...